Hurrah for Hay

Katie is a Hay Fever highlight! Hurrah!

Pop Up Plans

Last year I created a giant Pop Up Book for the first ever Pop Up Festival. This year I'm returning to curate a larger space at the festival's new site, beside Central St Martin's School of Art, at Kings Cross.

My theme? The Great Pop Up Picture Gallery! A gallery space celebrating ART will be created by theatre design students from the art school (my allocated designers Fabrizio and Gabriella are working on it right now). On the day there will be all sorts of art activities for children, some messy some collaborative, all of them fun! The collaborative art will then be exhibited INSIDE the Pop Up Gallery for all to see!

Throughout the day there will be breaks for storytellings (yes, upside down pictures from me!), and the chance to hear from the other artists supporting me. I'm extremely excited to tell you that they are...(drum roll):

VANESSA STONE - A Hertfordshire based paper cut artist, who is simply a magician with scissors and paper. She will be inspired by Italian Medieval and Renaissance paintings, and will be creating angels and demons!

and...

CLARA VULLIAMY - A simply brilliant picture-book creator, fantastic artist, and fellow cake eater. Clara will also be taking inspiration for her art activities from famous paintings.

I will also be running art workshops. Maybe a bit of Rousseau. A dash of Monet. A glimpse of Van Gogh. Who knows?

The festival runs over two days, Saturday June 30th and Sunday July 1st.  Amongst the starry line up you will find Marcus Sedgwick, Candy Gourlay, Laura Dockrill (who will be celebrating Roald Dahl) and Sarah McIntyre.

I will be there on SUNDAY JULY 1st from 12 noon until 6 pm for an afternoon of Masterpieces and Mayhew Mayhem!

And don't forget: IT'S ALL FREE !!!

Walled Garden Wonders!

Well, I can only call the first ever Luton Hoo Walled Garden Children's Book Festival a triumph! In damp and dreary weather people flocked to the lovely old gardens to hear an array of speakers in starry tents. And I had the enormous honour of being their very first speaker.

As it was a walled garden I had to include the Firebird story, which begins and ends in a magical garden. But I also told St George & the Dragon (both with upside down illustrations, of course), amongst other things. The warm and cheerful audience (considering the early Sunday morning start) made me feel very relaxed and I was just so happy to be part of something that I truly believe will become one of the truly important children's book festivals in the UK.

Books were sold signed and taken off by happy children, lemon cake was eaten (by me), friendships were renewed and new friendships forged. Even a Facebook friend, "Kitty Dinners" came - and with a gift: a handmade blue bunny (see picture below). He needs a name, so why not send me some ideas? In exchange for a signed book perhaps?

An enormous thank you to everyone who organised, set up, hosted, supported the festival so brilliantly. It was clearly a great success and I hope it goes from strength to strength!



Now I must pack for five jam packed days on the south coast visiting an abundance of schools. Cheerio!

By Royal Command!

Okay, I'm exaggerating just a tiny bit. But I am pretty thrilled (and very honoured)  to be one of a handful of authors and illustrators invited to be part of the SPECTACULAR Diamond Jubilee Pageant at Battersea Park on Sunday June 3rd.

This is a huge celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and lots of events will take place beside the river Thames as an extraordinary Flotilla passes by. There will be hundreds of boats and ships, including one with the Queen herself on board. And within Battersea Gardens, there will be a new Festival of Britain - 60 years of iconic food, fashion and culture will be celebrated at events curated by the Wayne Hemingway and Clare Patey. Within that is a story garden for families and I will be there at 3.15 telling English Folk Tales with my crazy upside down live illustrations. And I will, of course, be reading from the Jubilee edition of Katie in London. On a day like this... nothing else will do!

For info on tickets (they are VERYcheap) and more about the Festival, visit:


http://www.thamesdiamondjubileepageant.org/DiamondJubileeFestival.aspx

Maestro Mayhew!

A lovely interview by the Cheltenham Festival has gone online, in which I talk about getting children to try Classical Music. It's all in preparation for the performances I'll be giving there this summer, with the extraordinary Orchestra of the Music Makers from Singapore.

The article is titled: Maestro - but of course the true maestro will be the Singaporean conductor Chan Tze Law, a charming man, passionate about getting children and new audiences to concerts.

The first performance is on Saturday July 7th at 12 noon, in the beautiful Town Hall in Cheltenham. I'm really looking forward to returning to the festival and honoured to be working with such top notch musicians. There will be a repeat performance at the Lichfield Festival - details to follow very soon!

Here's the interview. There is a link after it for booking tickets, if you are interested!

 

A unique creative experience for your children - they can try at home!

Author and illustrator James Mayhew paints his way through 1001 Arabian Nights to the magical music of Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov, performed by the Orchestra of Music Makers. Dressed as Sinbad the Sailor, Mayhew will tell the exotic stories, introducing children to the beautiful princess Scheherazade, monsters, genies and fabulous fairytale cities.

James took time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about his new family show.

Live painting to live music - thatís quite an unusual combination. What should people expect from the concert?

The Orchestra of Music Makers will be performing one of my absolute favourite pieces, Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. He was a magician with the orchestra, who loved turning fairy tales and legends into music. He was really a musical illustrator! As well as narrating the stories I'll also be creating big illustrations, live on stage, as the orchestra plays. The pictures give children an accessible way in to understanding what the music is about. So audiences can expect to be swept along by the glorious music, hear tales from the Arabian Nights, and watch pictures grow and change on a big screen, before their very eyes!
Why did you choose Arabian nights?

I loved old movies about Sinbad and magical genies when I was a child, and they led me to the Arabian Nights. What a treasure trove of stories! They are full of pictures I want to draw and paint! Rimsky-Korsakov did not want to be very specific about which stories inspired him, but he left several clues. I have tried to be as authentic as possible. In reading many versions of the Arabian Nights I have found all sorts of fascinating and sometimes less famous stories that are extraordinarily strange and beautiful. Expect tales about pomegranates and genies and sea monsters and diamonds as big as rocks, and a princess as beautiful as the moon...!
Why is it important for children to experience the arts?

All children are naturally creative. They want to explore making marks and sounds. It's all about communicating. But nowadays there are so many distractions, some children don't find time to hear the whole arc of a story, to lose themselves in music, or to explore making pictures. Yet all these things are important if we want our children to know how to express themselves. Being creative is a useful skill in any walk of life. I also believe that the arts simply improve the quality of life. Introducing a child to the concert hall at a young age is a wonderful gift. Combined with art and storytelling, this is the perfect introduction to classical music.
Should families try drawing to music at home?

Yes! Absolutely! I always listen to music when I paint. You need music that isn't too long and is 'catchy' (has tunes!), and get them to draw or paint in time to the music, finishing as the music does. Sometimes it's fun racing along with a short piece, like The Flight of the Bumble Bee (about a Russian prince who has been turned into a bee by a magic Swan-Princess). Or you could try something longer like The Sorcerer's Apprentice. You can paint the story, or just make abstract colourful pictures. The 1812 overture by Tchaikovsky is good for that! YouTube is great for finding pieces to use this way.
What's next for you?

I love exploring the folk tales and legends behind the music. I'm absolutely passionate about this, and I truly believe it is a unique and magical combination of the arts for children. There are many themes to explore: heroes like William Tell, mythology like Prometheus, literary stories, like Shakespeare: all have been immortalized in fantastic music. Everyone knows the William Tell overture... but how many children know the story? My mission is to restore these great works to the original stories in a fun way, with illustrations to bring them alive. It's a huge task, but I love every minute of it! How many people get to stand on a stage with a whole orchestra and have Rimsky-Korsakov's music swirling around them? It's truly a flying carpet that transports you to a land of magic and imagination!

Venue: Cheltenham Town Hall Date: Sat 7 Jul / Time: 12 noon

 

M19 Sinbad the Sailor and the Stories of Scheherazade

CLICK HERE  TO BOOK TICKETS

Schools round Up 3

Lots more to share. Children are just brilliant. Amazing. I have a wonderful job, allowing me to glimpse their world, and remember my own childhood. Allowing me to join in with their imagination, their discovery of things, their breezy and immediate responses. I love it. Look at these drawings. Aren't they wonderful?

The portrait of me has me in front of "Amazing African Art". I didn't create that, by the way, it was already on display in a school. I was impressed by the setting in the portrait - not everyone thinks to do that. The dinosaur Time Line came from a boy in a class where we worked on a huge roll of paper, creating a time line (I WISH I had photographed it!!). I wasn't sure if the children would be familiar with the Mesozoic Era and it's components: Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous. Nor was I sure if they could work out which dinosaurs belonged to which era. How foolish of me. Of course they knew. this boy proved it with his fabulous mini time line (and he's only in Year 2!).

Sometimes children just impulsively give me drawings at the day. I'm always so touched and display them in my studio until they fade away (as felt tips tend to). I have drawers full of pictures kept. Things of joy and innocence.

Often they are mere scraps of paper, like the drawing of Katie. But still, the intent and the desire to give something back is wonderful, touching, cherishable.

Schools Round Up 2

These reminiscences are not in any particular order, as I'm trawling through so many photographs and - disgracefully - trying to remember which was which. It's been a busy few months with visits to schools and I have seen so many wonderful things created by children, so forgive me if I make an error or if there is an omission.

THIS school I remember well - it's the International School in Hillingdon, a wonderful place with beautiful grand buildings and super art facilities.

I've visited several times. this time I was asked to draw inspiration from a fabulous exhibition, in the school, of wood engravings of Aesop's Fables.

The terrible snow almost thwarted me, but how haunting the school looked as I arrived - like a scene from Eugene Onegin.

The children on the first day created large collaborative scenes of a mixture of fables, using a free printing and painting combination, with potato cuts and rollers. It was exuberant, fun and colourful. They all had to really think about shape and form instead of line, which was an interesting challenge.  This was preceded by some storytellings with me in the library.

Day two saw different children using the fables for more linear work but in strictly limited colour, creating individual pieces closer in purpose to the engravings that inspired them. The tortoise and the Hare was, of course, a favourite!

With support from the librarian and art teacher, I was once again bowled over by the level of arty created. It's not hard to see where I drew my inspiration for the POP UP postcard design ... of a March Hare!